Peter Baum took the dais in the media room tucked underneath the
south end of PPL Park, sitting alongside Colgate coach Mark Murphy
and teammate Ryan Walsh.

No more than 15 minutes prior, the final buzzer had sounded on
the record-breaking season of Baum and the Raiders. Though Baum
buried just one goal on 11 shots in Colgate's 17-6 quarterfinal
loss to Duke, the nation's leading scorer totaled 97 points for the
season — more than any player since Duke's Matt Danowski
scored the same number in 2008. The Tewaaraton Award finalist broke
seven school and Patriot League marks this season, and just one
week prior led Colgate to its first-ever NCAA tournament victory
over previously undefeated UMass.

So these were unchartered waters for Baum — both playing
in front of 10,000 fans and a national television audience, and
taking the stage in front of nearly 30 assembled reporters
afterward. But you never would have been able to tell.

Baum, as much as any player who met with the media following the
weekend's action, handled the podium with poise, answering each
question with thoughtful, insightful responses. He said all the
right things.

Per NCAA playoff procedure, each press conference beings with
the head coach making an opening statement. Then questions are
directed to the players, and once those are finished, eventually
questions for the coach once again.

Murphy made his remarks, and he congratulated Duke. Baum
answered a few questions directly and honestly (as did Walsh.) But
the media didn't get another chance to follow-up with Murphy, who
walked off stage with the players. (The media wasn't quite quick
enough.)

But this was about Baum being an ambassador for Colgate, an
ambassador for the sport. He handled the moment with composure.

"We jumped out, scored four goals. That's what we wanted to do:
start fast," Baum said. "Then in the second quarter there, we
didn't get the ball a lot. We had a few turnovers, and the wheels
kind of fell off. Against a team this good, if you give them a
chance like that, they can streak some goals together. That's what
they did. They kind of buried us in the second quarter. It's tough
to come back after that.

"There was just a stretch there where we really didn't get the
ball and control the tempo the way we wanted to in that second
quarter. They were able to score four or five in a row in. Once
that happened, we didn't do a good job of handling it. If we had
managed our emotions better and played the way we wanted to play, I
think we wouldn't have had a problem beating our guys, because we
were doing it in the first quarter. We let our emotions get the
best of us a little bit and started to play a little bit too
selfishly — not moving the ball. They just kind of buried us
in the second quarter."

"Being an attackman, standing at the midline watching, it's
tough. Our defense has battled all year. [We had a] sophomore
goalie playing his second ever game, and I thought he made some
great saves early on keeping us in it. But a team like [Duke] has
so many weapons."

Baum's basic message: Don't judge Colgate's season based on its
performance against the Duke buzz saw. There was a lot to like
about the Raiders' 2012 season, and they'll be back in 2013. They
just need to button up defensively and learn from the quarterfinal
experience.

Listening to Baum speak Sunday — as well as Virginia's
Steele Stanwick and Duke's CJ Costabile on the same stage, in the
same seats — I couldn't help but envision the Tewaaraton
Award ceremony. What great acceptance speeches any of these players
would give, and how well they would reflect on the sport at
large.

Stanwick is a historic talent who ended his career ranked 18th
all-time in career points, scoring two goals and dishing out five
assists in Virginia's 12-10 loss to Notre Dame. Costabile is a
do-it-all long-stick midfielder whose impact is felt well beyond
the stat sheet.

But again, you'd never be able to tell with the way they carry
themselves. When Costabile was asked about picking up a game-high
15 ground balls, he replied: "It's certainly beneficial with the
pole. It's easier to track balls down. I was just fortunate to be
in the right spot."

Talk about understating the obvious.

That's what makes this group of Tewaaraton finalists so hard to
separate, I would argue. Their contributions sometimes to unnoticed
because of circumstance, or who surrounds them.

Baum led a 2,800-student private school (Colgate), from small a
town in New York (Hamilton, with a population of 6,700) to the
postseason.

Costabile, as Duke coach John Danowski put it, "is such an
understated young man. He's certainly not a rah-rah guy. He is
quiet. Sometimes we do take him for granted, because he is so
quiet, and he goes about his way." But he's also on a team with
big-named stars Jordan Wolf, Rob Rotanz, Mike Manley and Justin
Turri.

Will Manny paced UMass' high-powered attack that had two other
50-point scorers. And Loyola's Mike Sawyer plays with two of the
nation's most dynamic defensive players — Scott Ratliff and
Josh Hawkins — plus lefty 45-goal scorer Eric Lusby.

So who has the Tewaaraton edge? History would suggest Costabile
or Sawyer, since they're still alive, and all but one of the men's
award's winners (Doug Shanahan, 2001) has played in Memorial Day
Weekend.

But one thing is clear: There could be more suspense than ever
before come May 31, when the Committee names the 2012 winner.

As Cool As The Other Side of the Pillow

Baum, Costabile and Stanwick were relaxed and comfortable at the
podium. But the coolest character of them all? That would be Notre
Dame goalie and Tewaaraton snub John Kemp, who never seems to get
flustered on the field either.

Near the end of the first half of Notre Dame's 12-10 defeat of
Virginia, Kemp faced a flurry of pressure by the Cavaliers offense.
He got a piece of Steele Stanwick's sidewinder, then denied Colin
Briggs' step-down shot from the right side as time expired.

In total control, Kemp corralled the shot and lightly tossed it
back in Briggs' direction. There might have been a slight hint of,
"That's all you've got?"

Kemp's calm has to be deathly intimidating to opposing
shooters.

When Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan was asked about Kemp's
level-headed nature, he said: "For today, or for the last three
years?"

"He's the best goalie in the country," Corrigan continued. "He
shows it game after game. I wouldn't even get into a conversation
about who was second, because he's been consistently terrific all
year long. We sometimes get credit for playing such good defense
that people think John Kemp's job is easy back there. It didn't
look very easy to me today. He's just a great goalie. And he's our
best player."

Duke's Fowler Out With Broken Collarbone

Duke sophomore faceoff specialist Brendan Fowler, who won
12-of-17 faceoffs against Syracuse in the Blue Devils' first-round
win, broke his collarbone in the third quarter against the Orange,
Danowski confirmed. Fowler suffered the injury on a collision at
midfield following a faceoff. It's safe to assume Fowler will miss
the rest of the postseason.

Junior Greg DeLuca spelled Fowler in the second half against
Syracuse and won 5-of-7 draws, while senior long-stick midfielder
and Tewaaraton finalist CJ Costabile — Duke's main option at
the X — played on the wings and did not take a faceoff.

"We were working with other young men to try to take the load
off of CJ, if we needed to," Danowski said after the Colgate win.
"Greg came in last week and gave us a great spark, and we didn't
need to use CJ."

But when DeLuca started 1-for-5 against the Raiders in the
quarterfinals, Costabile was re-inserted and won 14-of-20
faceoffs.

"[Sunday] you saw Greg struggled a little bit," Danowski said.
"It was a senior's time. A senior's moment. And certainly he didn't
disappoint."

With Costabile and DeLuca, Duke is plenty potent at the faceoff
X, though it will be without Fowler for championship weekend. For
the season, Fowler had won 60.6 percent of faceoffs
(90-of-149).

Preakness' Impact on Crowd Presence

There were mixed reactions to the size of the crowds that filled
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and PPL Park for the weekend's
NCAA quarterfinal action.

But how did the 2012 attendance compare to the last 10 years?
Glad you asked.

Though 2012 attendance decreased 12.5 percent from 2011, it
still represented the second-highest total ever, and represented a
slight increase over the 2008 and 2009 totals. And Saturday's
quarterfinal games in Annapolis drew 13,390 fans on the same day as
The Preakness Stakes, which attracted a record-break crowd of
121,300 in Baltimore — just 30 miles away.

Nonetheless, it's worth asking: Are attendance totals stagnating
as a result of a greater number of games being on TV? (In 2008 and
2009, all four quarterfinals games were broadcast on ESPNU. This
year, Saturday's games were on ESPN2 and Sunday's were on
ESPNU.)

At the very least, NCAA organizers should avoid planning a
quarterfinal in the greater Baltimore metropolitan area on the same
day as the Preakness. Put the lacrosse games on Sunday.

Pictorial PPL Park

One of the most popular and common refrains heard on Sunday,
both inside and outside the press box: PPL Park is picturesque, and
will certainly rank among the top choices to host future
quarterfinals.

So much was obvious to Danowski, who said the facility was
"phenomenal."

"It would be really cool if in Major League Lacrosse, everybody
had a facility like that," Danoski said. "It would be great. Great
setting, great place. Just getting a chance to walk around it
yesterday, I thought it was a big-time facility. Perfect size for
our sport. I would imagine if you were a fan, it seemed like
perfect sightlines, no bad seats. Just seemed like a great place to
enjoy the game."

Home to Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, PPL Park sits
along the Delaware River, just underneath the Commodore Barry
Bridge, which separates Chester, Pa., from New Jersey. The
spacious, open-ended stadium offers stunning views of the water,
while Philadelphia's skyline stands in the distance. The
overhanging rooftops keep fans mostly in the shade and protected
from the elements. And the sightlines are perfect, as the stadium's
architecture builds vertically more than horizontally, but isn't
too tall.

Growth of the Game

Lacrosse is the nation's fastest-growing sport, numerically and
geographically. That was remarkably obvious throughout the
quarterfinals, when star players from across the country impacted
the outcome of each game.

When Loyola coach Charley Toomey was asked about what this says
about the sport. He responded: "It says when this [season] is over,
we better go on the road and go recruit. It's great for the state
of lacrosse. 'Well they're athletes, but they've got to improve on
their stick-skills.' Scott Ratliff might have the best stick-skills
of any pole in the country. We've got to get out and find those
players."

It also helps that Ratliff grew up in suburban Atlanta learning
to play from a two-time All-American. Randy Ratliff, his father,
was a defenseman at Maryland in the 1970s. (Not everyone gets this
experience. At least not yet.)

By team, here are a few of the quarterfinals' biggest stars,
from Seattle to Waxhaw, N.C...

Said Maryland coach John Tillman, on having a number of players
from non-traditional areas: "Typical of us, we kind of have a mixed
bag. We take a lot of pride in that. We like the fact that we have
a lot of diversity on our team. We have a lot of different guys
from different areas. Nobody is safe. Everybody gets picked on a
lot. I probably pick on Drew Snider more than anybody. And the
coaches pick on me probably more than anybody. It's just great to
see."

The Secret Recipe

Many have repeated throughout May that there's a simple formula
for postseason success: control the possession battle by winning
faceoffs and picking up ground balls.

The formula held true in the 2012 quarterfinals. All four teams
that survived and advanced won (or tied) both the faceoff and
ground ball battles.

But how do those numbers hold up over time? We've done a little
bit of research for you, over the past six seasons...

Since 2007, here are the success rates of teams who win both key
categories:

The most telling and timely finding? Since 2007, teams who win
both categories in the semifinals are 5-1. That nugget is for you,
coaches Corrigan, Danowski, Tillman and Toomey.

Who's Got the Runs?

Goal-scoring runs. An argument could be made that lacrosse games
— similar to other sports, like basketball — always
have their fair share of scoring streaks or droughts. But this
year's tournament has been littered with them and defined many
outcomes.